Analysts and state financial officials estimate it would save the state $4.5 million a year.

Anita Anderson, the measure’s proponent and author, is a familiar name in the initiative process. Her name was also listed as the proponent on an eminent domain measure on the November 2006 ballot, which voters rejected.

According to newspaper accounts, Anderson is a Potrero Hills resident who once worked for the wife of the man behind a nationwide drive to place property rights measures on state ballots, wealthy New York libertarian Howie Rich.

For Anderson’s latest measure, proponents must collect the signatures of 694,354 registered voters, or 8 percent of the votes cast for governor in the 2006 gubernatorial election, in order to secure a place on an upcoming ballot. The deadline is Oct. 1.

Anderson has a second initiative still under view by the Attorney General’s Office, which would ban gifts to legislators from lobbyists.